San Antonio Museum of Art

San Antonio Museum of Art visitors can expect to enjoy a fine collection of exhibitions that highlight many different artists and styles. The San Antonio Museum of Art is located at 200 West Jones Avenue in the downtown area. While the highlight of this excellent art museum in San Antonio is the Latin American art collection, American art, European art, Asian art, and Oceanic art are also featured. Adding to the relatively eclectic allure is a contemporary art collection and a number of temporary exhibits that revolve around any number of subjects. You could easily spend a couple of hours at the San Antonio Museum of Art, and since there are visitor computer stations that offer further insight into the art that is on display, many visitors end up staying longer during their San Antonio vacations.

The best of the San Antonio Museum of Art exhibitions is the Latin American Art exhibition. No other collection of Latin American art in the United States is larger, and this has a lot to do with the fact that it is housed in its own 30,000-square-foot wing. Some of the pieces that are on display at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art are more than 3,000 years old, while others are more recent. Stone objects mingle with ceramic and metal objects, and these objects come from a number of different cultures, such as the Maya and the Inca of Peru. Small rotating exhibits that last anywhere from four to six months complement the permanent exhibits at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art.

All of the San Antonio Museum of Art exhibitions are interesting, so visitors won't want to spend all of their time in the Latin American wing. At the American Art exhibition, some of the most interesting pieces are dazzling landscape paintings. Some of these paintings date back to colonial times, while others were completed as recently as the early 1900s. On the European side of things, the San Antonio Museum of Art boasts works that mostly hail from Great Britain, Italy, Holland, and France. Sculptures and paintings mostly comprise the European Art collection, and one of the main highlights is the painting Admiration by William Adolphe Bouguereau. This work is an excellent example of the European academic style of painting that was popular in the late nineteenth century.

Much like the Latin American collection, the Asian Art collection at this excellent art museum in San Antonio is among the largest of its kind in the country. Housed in a 15,000-square-foot wing, the Asian Art collection boasts more than 1,000 works that span almost 6,000 years of history. While art from a number of different countries is featured, the Chinese collection is the most extensive.

The Oceanic collection offers insight into art that comes from such places as Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. Many of the pieces in the Oceanic collection have strong mythological, metaphysical, and magical ties, thus offering fantastic insight into native Oceania cultures.

Even though it isn't the largest museum in the world, there is a lot to see at the San Antonio Museum of Art. As such, repeat visits might be in order. While the admission fees are reasonable, repeat visitors might try to align one of their visits with the Tuesday evening free sessions. It doesn't cost anything to gain access to this wonderful art museum in San Antonio should you arrive between the hours of 4 p.m. and 9 p.m on Tuesdays. As is true at some of the city's other museums, such as the Witte Museum, surcharges often apply when it comes to special San Antonio Museum of Art exhibitions, though these fees are also reasonable.

General hours for the museum are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday. On Monday, the museum is closed for the day. It also closes on major holidays and on Friday during the San Antonio Fiesta.

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